Judge who will decide fate of Surrey-Guildford election result wants to start hearing as soon as mid-June

Bob Mackin

The B.C. Supreme Court judge presiding over a Conservative Party of B.C. candidate’s bid to overturn the NDP win in Surrey-Guildford said May 26 that the main hearing could last two weeks.

Justice Barbara Norell reserved decision on applications by Elections BC and NDP MLA Garry Begg to seal or ban publication of personal information of certain voters. Norell said she does not want to wait much longer to hear the case.

“I am concerned, this is an election and we’ve got to get this matter heard as quickly as we can,” Norell said in court.

Premier David Eby hugging 22-vote Surrey-Guildford winner Garry Begg at the Nov. 18, 2024 swearing-in ceremony (BC Gov/Flickr)

Begg won the riding by 22 votes after a judicial recount last November, giving the NDP a 47-seat majority in the 93-seat Legislature. Premier David Eby named Begg solicitor general.

Runner-up Honveer Singh Randhawa wants the result invalidated because he alleges at least 46 invalid votes were counted, at least 23 non-residents voted and at least two people voted more than once. Elections BC has denied the allegations.

Norell asked lawyers for Elections BC, Begg and Randhawa to provide their open dates between mid-June and September after expressing frustration that the May 26 hearing took a full day of court time.

“I don’t mean in a critical way, but this was originally set for 30 minutes at nine o’clock, and I said, I don’t think so,” Norell said. “Even when we had our pretrial hearing conference, I think counsel said, ‘oh, maybe an hour and a half’, and I said, half-a-day. It’s now been a full day.”

Norell told them to think carefully if five days is enough, particularly if there will be oral testimony and how many witnesses may be called.

“Five days seems light to me,” Norell said.

Earlier, Norell issued a temporary ban on publication of the identify of individual voters mentioned in affidavits.

Randhawa’s lawyer Sunny Uppal admitted his position is “a little strange,” saying he consents to Elections BC’s bid to seal the names of voters whose votes are called into question, but not Begg’s broader application. Randhawa argued that family members who volunteer evidence need to be subject to public scrutiny.

“The truth-seeking function is going to be compromised if the deponents are allowed to swear affidavits where their names are going to be sealed,” Uppal told the court.

Election recap report

On May 27, Elections BC published the first volume of its final report on the 2024 election, which ran on a $94.33 million budget.

More than 2.1 million votes were cast before or on Oct. 19, representing 58.45% of the 3.6 million registered voters.

Torrential rains throughout election day across the province led to power outages and voting place closures. A state of emergency was declared in part of North Vancouver’s Deep Cove. A partial judicial recount was ordered for Prince George-Mackenzie due to an uncounted ballot box containing 861 advance votes.

The election was the first since amendments to the Election Act that include a maximum $50,000-per-day fine for disinformation about voting processes.

Elections BC False Allegations or Statements Transmission team reviewed 39 incident reports, of which 15 potential contraventions were escalated for review. That included five false statements about election officials or voting administration tools; four instances of false election information; two instances of misrepresentation; and four unauthorized transmissions.

More details are expected in volume two later this year.

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Bob Mackin The B.C. Supreme Court judge presiding